News
Sumanthiran concerned over limiting access to justice
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran last week expressed serious concerns in parliament about amending the Poisons, Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance removing access to provincial High Courts.
He told parliament on Thursday (10): “There is a concern that the bail application has to now be made through the Court of Appeal instead of High Court. This is a very serious issue. It is not a question of making bail stringent. This is a question of access to Justice.
“I am saying that because the Court of Appeal sits only in Colombo, whereas now with the provincial High Courts you can go to your provincial capital. In lots of instances, the High Court sits in more than one city or town in a province, and you can make an application. Now this is very important, this is not a question of being lenient towards a possession of dangerous drugs, this is about anybody who is accused of this offence being able to go to court,” he said.
He said that the access to justice must not be denied and that there are incidents where people are framed or various distortions take place. Therefore suspects must be able to approach court and that must never be made difficult, he said.
“It is only after the 13th amendment to the constitution, that the first appeal even from a District Court matter can be made to the Court in the province. Before that even if the District Judge made a small mistake in the course of proceedings, you have to come to Colombo and make an application. So devolution – we talk about executive powers and legislative powers but with regard to the Judiciary a salutary feature came in, when people can access to a justice at least in the first appeal.
“So I appeal to the minister not to remove the jurisdictions to grant bail in this way to one central place in the whole country. Because that is denial of Justice to people and also it is against devolution,” Sumanthiran said.
As per the provisions of section 51 of the Public Finance Managaement Act No. 44 of 2024, the public should be issued with a report on the final budgetary situation for each year and, the report is then published in the official website of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
Thereby the report has to be submitted to the Parliament. The final budgetary situation report (Annual Report) – 2025 has been prepared by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and published. The report contains the Public Finance Policy, strategies and challenges, economic trends in 2025, macro – economic and socio – economic indicators covering all sectors of the economy as well as description on the global economic growth.
Furthermore, it accompanies a detailed description government revenue and expenditure, cash flow management, financing the budget deficit and the loan structure.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to submit the Report on the Final Budgetary Condition (Annual Report) – 2025 to Parliament.
Business
Cabinet nod to accept increased Loan Grant provided by the Asian Development Bank under Policy Based Loan Facilities – 2026
Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was granted at their meeting held on 16.03.2026 to obtain United States Dollars 380 million from the policy – based loan facilities of the Asian Development Bank in the year 2026.
United States Dollars 100 million out of it is allocated for Trade, Investment and Industries Development Programme – Sub Programme 1. However, amidst the economic uncertainty resulting from the current Middle East crisis and the climatic tragedies, the Asian Development Bank has agreed to assist
by increasing a supplementary financing package of United States Dollars 100 million so that it will beMincreased up to United States Dollars 200 million.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to take further measures to obtain the said loan grant.
News
Submission of Revenue Protection Order Prepared under the Provisions of the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 to the Parliament for its approval.
Approval of the Cabinet of Ministers was given at the meeting held on 23.02.2026 to impose the custom import duty amounts under four (04) categories as 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% which had been executed only under three (03) categories in order to increase the target export income of the country, to execute the
recommendations of the national customs duty policies committee, and to implement new national sub division customs codes for promoting the local agricultural and industrial sector.
Imposing provisions in relation to the above, the Revenue Protection Order – No. 01/2026 under the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 has been published in the extraordinary gazette notification No. 2478/03 of 03.03.2026.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to submit the said revenue protection order to Parliament for its concurrence.
Report on the Final Budgetary Condition (Annual Report) – 2025 submited to parliament
Cabinet nod to accept increased Loan Grant provided by the Asian Development Bank under Policy Based Loan Facilities – 2026
Submission of Revenue Protection Order Prepared under the Provisions of the Revenue Protection Act No. 19 of 1962 to the Parliament for its approval.
Resettlement of unauthorized settlers affected by the Land Acquisition process for the implementation of Phase III of the Baseline Road Extension Project
Cabinet approves project to modernize school hostel facilities during the 2026–2028 period at an estimated cost of Rs. 1,008 million
New National Action Plan for Human-Elephant Conflict Management to be drafted
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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